Five reasons to buy the ASUS ZenFone 2

The ASUS ZenFone 2 is a phone you should be looking at if you're in the market for something new.

Phones like the ASUS ZenFone 2 mean that you don't have to visit your carrier to find a great Android phone. 2015 is the year of unlocked phones that won't break the bank, but perform like they should. And we love it.

Having more than one choice when buying a new phone is great for us. It's especially great when many of the choices deliver when it comes to performance while staying friendly to your wallet. The ZenFone 2 is one of those gems that does both.

1. The internal hardware

For starters, we really have to recommend anyone shopping for a new ZenFone 2 look at the "premium" model with 64GB of storage and 4GB of RAM. We're not knocking the other model, but the higher-end version is a much better bargain.

The Intel ATOM CPU paired with the 4GB of RAM means that most everything you want to do on the ZenFone 2 is going to be fast. Forget benchmarks, we mean actually doing things like playing games or rendering video or even browsing the web. Apps open fast and are responsive — easily as fast and responsive as any 2015 Android phone. The ZenFone outperforms its bargain price point.

2. Solid wireless connections

Be it Bluetooth, Wifi or a cellular connection, the ZenFone 2 wireless radios are some of the best we've ever seen. You'll stay connected to your carrier longer, have a better range, and have higher data transfer rates with the ZenFone 2 than you will with most other Android phones out there. We don't know what kind of magic dust Intel sprinkled into the hardware, but we're glad they did it.

Add in the fact that the ZenFone 2 is unlocked and works on every North American GSM carrier, and you have a great phone that does the "phone" things well.

3. The curved back

ASUS might have put the power button in an awkward place, but they did a solid when it comes to making the phone comfortable to hold. The rear of the ZenFone 2 has a curve where the center is thicker than the edges, and it makes holding the phone in your hand comfortable — even during long calls. You'll also be able to easily adjust the volume by feel because of the back-mounted volume rocker.

You'll not have the feeling that you're going to drop it because you're only holding the edges. For folks who talk on the phone a good bit, little things like this can mean a lot.

4. The Flip case

Love them or hate them, the "smart" Flip case for the ZenFone 2 works very well.

The circular window and settings make for a quick way to get information about calls and messages you have missed, or get a detailed weather forecast, and even a quick way to fire off the LED flashlight.

We've see interactive folio covers from all the "big" names in Android, and it's nice seeing the same level of detail (and functionality) in a phone that doesn't crush your wallet.

5. It won't break the bank

If you want high-end performance and great quality and durability in your next phone, but would rather not part with $500 or more, the ZenFone 2 is a phone you need to look at.

You won't be able to find another phone with a 64-bit quad-core CPU, 4 GB of RAM and 64GB of storage (plus an SD card slot) for under $300. That's not even mentioning that the ZenFone 2 works on most carriers around the globe, or has a dual-SIM configuration, or it's own feature-packed user interface.

Whether you want to play games, or be able to stay in touch with friends and family, or just surf the web on your downtime, the ZenFone 2 will serve you well.

It's definitely a phone you need to consider if you're looking for something new.

I keep getting a box saying external storage ( my micro as card ) has been connected. Does that mean it is not always recognizing it, and why none of my downloads or data are being sent there for storage?

Don't buy this phone. I have had two in the last 30 days and both of them had the same problem. The phone will not read the micro SD card that is placed into the slot. I have tried three different cards from three different manufactures in three different capacities. If you google the issue, you will see that it is a wide spread concern. Even the Asus Forum has a section dedicated to the issue. I called Asus about the issue for the original phone that I purchased and the repleacement that they sent me. Both times, I was told there was no issue, I needed to buy a different micro SD card and that the phone was perfectly fine. The last time I called, the support member then told me that all of the SD Cards that I had used were just bad and that I needed to invest in a specific Samsung Micro SD card (which I had already tried). He then suggested that I just purchase the 64GB version instead of the 32GB version that I had so that the extra space would not be an issue for me. I asked if they would be willing to just send me the 64GB phone as a replacement to the 2 32GB phones that I had purchased and he said they would not do that. I returned both phones. I will never purchase another Asus product again.

Interestingly enough, it's 3 weeks later and ASUS has just announced the Zenfone 2 DELUXE. And one of the the only differences I have seen in the specs is that it handles a bigger 128 gb SD card. So maybe they made a change in the reader due to the problems you and others have described.

Joel

Quote=Don't buy this phone. I have had two in the last 30 days and both of them had the same problem. The phone will not read the micro SD card that is placed into the slot. I have tried three different cards from three different manufactures in three different capacities. If you google the issue, you will see that it is a wide spread concern. Even the Asus Forum has a section dedicated to the issue. I called Asus about the issue for the original phone that I purchased and the repleacement that they sent me. Both times, I was told there was no issue, I needed to buy a different micro SD card and that the phone was perfectly fine. The last time I called, the support member then told me that all of the SD Cards that I had used were just bad and that I needed to invest in a specific Samsung Micro SD card (which I had already tried). He then suggested that I just purchase the 64GB version instead of the 32GB version that I had so that the extra space would not be an issue for me. I asked if they would be willing to just send me the 64GB phone as a replacement to the 2 32GB phones that I had purchased and he said they would not do that. I returned both phones. I will never purchase another Asus product again.

Ok, so the only thing....I'll try this again is that it has 64/128gb of memory built in....and they show the SD card at up to 128gb. other than that...I don't see a difference. Maybe they are fixing the dim screen issue some people have talked about. But it's all the same I think....otherwise :)

OH Wait, it has a more premium look too....there...something else...I think the back has fancier plastic on it :D

Using it since past 2.5 months. Perfirmance awsome. Camera needs a little tweaking, but I've managed to take some real stunners after tweaking it. No problem with power button as double tap does the locking-unlocking. However, this sure is a VERY bulky phone. Heavy, and big. So, well yeah, that's the downside for me. Still at this price, that's a small trade off.

from what i've read, it's running within a virtual machine which should be fine for most users (then again people performing this aren't 'most' users, lol) but a vm (vs partitioned installation) would not utilize all the internals to full capacity...great effort so far though!

I bought it a few days ago. I swapped it out for my nexus 5. I have 2 lines for myself. A business and a personal line, I like the dual sim feature because now u don't have to carry around 2 devices if I don't way to. This phone is legit.

I hate curved backs, they don't work well on wireless chargers, they slide around and they are horrible to use sitting on a desk. The one place I do expect to be able to use a phone one handed is when its sitting on a desk.

I use a wallet case for this phone that I found on Amazon for like $8. Some people complained that it was too bulky for an already large phone, but that's all preference. I love it. It also enables easier on table use.

how is application compatibility? I mean, with this being Intel, and not ARM, is there a big application disadvantage?
I currently have a GS5, with which I have a love/hate relationship. It's a great phone, but I had to ditch TW because of a stupid and apparently unsolvable bug of not receiving phone calls after a while. AOSP has that issue solved.
But I have a mad amount of business apps that I need to use on a daily basis, and would hate to have to turn away from those for x86.

Performance on this thing really is amazing. It doesn't really slow down anywhere. It's the fastest phone I've owned by far. Some people may not like the capacitive buttons (though there is a flashable zip to enable soft keys if you're interested) and the power button placement, but everything else about the phone seems pretty on-par with flagships. It's well-designed (though not metal, sadly), has reasonable battery life (not amazing, but that's because of a wake-lock bug that's supposedly fixed in 5.1), and really killer performance. I highly suggest it. Pick it up from Amazon. They are super lenient on returns. You can try it out for a couple of weeks to decide if you like it.

Updates have been timely to fix stuff. Also, there is a 1-click root and bootloader unlock that takes like 2 commands in a terminal on the device (a few more if you do it on the computer). You can be rooted and unlocked in about 3 minutes start to finish. Still waiting on some real custom roms obviously (CM12 or AOSP), but someone was nice enough to create a "de-bloated" version of the stock rom that you can flash, if you want.